A little domestic strife
THE Philippines Consul General is letting off more steam than a jeepney which has crashed into a brick wall.
It has become known that The Royal Hongkong Jockey Club has ruled that maids - an unavoidable synonym these days for Filipinas - will only be allowed into the Club with their employers or while escorting their employers' children when the little ankle-biters have urgent business to conduct there.
Even then, the maids will be restricted to designated areas.
I was puzzled by the offence taken. Given that the Jockey Club has 30,000 members and that they are the sort of people who have a maid for every free-standing pot plant, if the maids had the run of the place, then the members would have as much chance ofsqueezing on to the premises as they would into The Kingdom of Heaven.
Curious to see if other major clubs in Hongkong did as much, more or less for domestics than the Jockey Club, I asked 10 of them their policy. Three provided as much, but not much more, than the Jockey Club, three had no experience of the problem, and four barred members' domestic servants outright.
Beginning in my own back yard, at The Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC) - where I am a board member - I asked a spokesman: myself. ''Our membership is more of the 'woman-that-comes-in-and-does' type,'' I said. ''Those with maids are reluctant to bring them, anyway. It is a sign that the marriage is heading for the rocks. The reason for bringing maids is invariably children, and you would rather lock your child in the wardrobe with the bogeyman than take it to the FCC.'' Looking up the hill, I called that depository of sensible shoes, the Ladies' Recreation Club. An English secretary dealt with me as though she had just come out of karate class. Were maids allowed in at all? ''No, not at all.'' What about children? ''They do have their own area, down there.'' Between the car park and the incinerator, perhaps? ''Under 10, they must be accompanied by an adult. Over that they can go around alone.'' I moved quickly on.